We must be clean to be wise, so says James 3:13. We must be clean to love, 1Timothy 1:5. David washed his hands in innocency, and so compassed the altar of God. Jesus washed the disciples feet, He declared them “clean every whit” in John 13:10, “clean” in John 15:3. “Clean” is a state of grace, a state designed by mercy, a purged state washed by the blood of Christ and entering our soul by the Word of God. Because of the radical nature of “clean” Old Testament Lot is declared righteous in 2 Peter 2:7-8. Yes, the same Lot who pitched his tent toward Sodom, Genesis 13:12, who refused to leave Sodom at it’s judgement, Genesis 19:18, and committed incest with his daughters, in Genesis 19:36, Peter declares righteous. Saul had the kingdom torn away from him in 1 Samuel 15:23. as Samuel announces “…he hath also rejected thee from…
Tag: <span>flesh</span>
I have sat beside a tiny crib, And watched a baby die,As parents slowly turned toward me,To ask, “Oh, Pastor, why?” I have held the youthful husband’s head,And felt death’s heave and sigh.A widow looked through tears and said,“Dear Pastor, tell me why?” I have seen a gold-star mother weep,And hold a picture nighHer lonely breast, and softly ask,“Why? Pastor, why, oh, why?” I have walked away from babyland,Where still-born babies lie.A mother stretches empty arms,And asks me, “Pastor, why?” I have watched my drunken Father leaveOur home, and say “good-bye,”While looking into Mother’s faceI asked, “Please tell me why?” I have heard the white-tipped tapping cane, Which leads a blinded eye.And then a darkened, lonely voiceCries, Preacher, show me why.” I have caught a fiancee’s burning tears,And heard her lonely cry.She held an unused wedding gown,And shouted, “Pastor, why?” I have heard the cancer patient say,” Tis…
And psychometry is the discovery that the mind can act outside the human body and that the ‘psychometric sensitive’ can read the past like an open book. Then came a discovery called ‘statvolism,’ signifying a peculiar condition produced by the will, in which the subject can ‘throw the mind’ to any distant place, and see, hear, smell, and taste, what is going on there. Then came a discovery called” Pathetism” …By this the mind could withdraw itself from the consciousness of pain and cure diseases. Jesse Penn Lewis “Through the Spirit we do mortify the deeds of the body.” This mortifying operation works not through soul-power. “If Christ be in us the body is dead because of sin.” These verses are in Romans 8. See, the impotent soul cannot effect or give life or death, for that matter; without the Spirit, it only retains its inherent life and develops…
Good coaching goes this way: “back to fundamentals boys, back to the basics.” The hidden word here is “foundation,” and any team going anywhere has to build from the bottom. When that group forgets what got them to their present successes; they need to go back and do a revisit now, (I mean Right Now!). Hey, if the Bettenhausen Lady-birds’ softball team drift too far, they lose sight of the nest, and the chickadees ain’t gettin no food! Its time to get back to business! This is a comic picture but true. “We need more unity, we gotta get together, we ain’t sticken together as a unit.” What happened? Well, it happened in the hearts of the individuals first, manifesting itself second in the “lean mean fighting machine.” The synchronized power-generator started disintegrating because of the parts breaking down. For the Mannheim Sheep Dogs, maybe, the wolf in sheep’s clothing…
Dedicated runner (me) in Belle Vernon cemetery, late 70’s We practiced examining our conscience before going to confession when fourth and fifth grades came. Basically, assigned a copy of the Ten Commandments, we mulled over them one by one. My hardest of all was: Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife. I certainly didn’t, but the Catholics listed sub-points under the big point. “Impure thoughts” logically followed as a major sub-heading, and this complicated a lot of things. Outspokenly, a million things could have comprised an “impure thought,” and since self-examination was a subjective exercise, I ended up confessing these 9 or 10 times per, and even more. Somehow, this variety of sin extracted more guilt than other sins. As we moved to 6th and 7th grades, it became impractical to repeatedly confess these kinds of sins; we had reached pure evil now, I guess. Moses delivered, to the children…